Trump Proposes USDA Cuts; More Bird Flu in Tennessee

**President Trump is proposing to slash the Agriculture Department’s field staff and also make deep reductions in research, rural development and international food aid.

A 62-page budget summary released by the White House is skimpy on details but it calls for a $4.7 billion, or nearly 21 percent, reduction in USDA’s “discretionary” accounts, programs where spending levels are not mandated through the farm bill and other laws. The White House plans to propose reductions in mandatory programs later.

**The USDA has confirmed a second case of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or Bird Flu, in Tennessee, at a commercial breeder flock less than two miles from where the disease was detected earlier this month.

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed the strain of the disease (H7N9) is the same previously found on a nearby poultry farm over two weeks ago.

The flock of 55,000 chickens will be depopulated, and surveillance and testing for the disease will be conducted within a 10-kilometer radius of the site.

**Glyphosate is not a carcinogen. That’s the conclusion of the European Chemicals Agency, setting the stage for the active ingredient in Roundup to receive long-term approval in Europe.

ECHA's Committee for Risk Assessment found that “the available scientific evidence did not meet the criteria to classify glyphosate as a carcinogen, as a mutagen or as toxic for reproduction.

However, the RAC says the chemical does cause “serious eye damage” and is “toxic to aquatic life with long-lasting effects.”